Other Topics : Art Culture - Fashion - Tourism

Latest & Hot Bollywood Film News : * hourly updation

Back to Bollywood Current News Section

 
Manisha backs Nepal king as opposition starts shutdown
By Sudeshna Sarkar, Indo-Asian News Service

Kathmandu, April 6 (IANS) Bollywood actress Manisha Koirala has pledged support to Nepal's King Gyanendra at a time when the kingdom's major opposition parties, some headed by her own family members, have called a nationwide shutdown from Thursday to pressure the monarch into surrendering power.
        

                           Advertisement

The film star, who provoked protests last month when she flew to eastern Nepal to drum up support for the controversial local elections called by the king, is scheduled to arrive in the southern town of Birgunj this week to attend a programme to be inaugurated by the king.

The World Hindu Federation (WHF), a group that started out as a socio-religious organisation propagating Hinduism but has become increasingly political since last year, is celebrating its silver jubilee this month.

Ignoring a four-day shutdown called nationwide by the opposition parties from Thursday, including a mass protest in the capital Saturday, the king has consented to inaugurate a special ceremony in Birgunj Friday.

WHF officials said Manisha has confirmed she would attend the ceremony in Birgunj.

The WHF, which enjoys grants from the state treasury, supports Gyanendra's power seizure. Headed by Bharat Keshar Simha, a former army general and aide of the king, the WHF has been asking Hindus worldwide to support Gyanendra on the ground that he is the monarch of the only Hindu kingdom.

Last month, Manisha hopped between Kathmandu and Biratnagar in eastern Nepal, campaigning for a municipal poll candidate, who however lost by a huge margin.

Her campaign, at a time when her granduncle and opposition leader Girija Prasad Koirala's Nepali Congress party was campaigning against the elections, infuriated student organisations which "banned" her films in parts of Nepal.

Besides Manisha, two prominent right-wing Indian leaders are also attending the Birgunj event. Giriraj Kishore of India's Vishwa Hindu Parishad, which has close ties with the WHF, and Gopal Vyas, MP from India's Jharkhand state, are special guests at the function.

Oe staunch supporter of the king and the Hindu cause will however ble to make it.

VHP leader Ashok Singhal, who is provided Z category security by the Indian government due to death threats from fundamentalist organisations and who has publicly worshipped Gyanendra as the incarnation of Hindu god Vishnu at an earlier function, put off his trip due to "illness".

Singhal was earlier scheduled to arrive in Birgunj Monday, compelling the Indian government to ask Nepal to make appropriate security arrangements for the leader.

Maoists warn Manisha Koirala: report
By Sudeshna Sarkar, Indo-Asian News Service

Kathmandu, April 7 (IANS) Maoist guerrillas have reportedly warned Bollywood actress Manisha Koirala, who hails from Nepal, they would take action against her if she did not stop campaigning for King Gyanendra.

This week, the guerrillas held a series of programmes in the farwest region, where they told journalists if the actress continued to root for the king, who seized power with the help of the army last year, they would teach her a lesson right in Mumbai, India's glamour and business capital which the star has made her home for over a decade.

At a programme organised by the cultural wing of underground rebels in a village in Bardiya district, Maoist leader Ganesh Bhandari proclaimed the edict on Manisha, the Nepal Samacharpatra daily reported.

The news travelled fast, being picked up by the private radio station Himalayan Broadcasting Corporation, which reported the Maoist fatwa quoting the daily.

Since 2002, when Gyanendra started controlling the government by dismissing then prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and appointing three premiers of his own choice, Manisha and her father Prakash Koirala have been publicly supporting the monarch.

Last month, Manisha flew from Mumbai to campaign for the controversial local elections called by the king for Feb 8. However, her canvassing cut little ice with the voters who ignored the contestant she had supported and stayed away from the exercise.

Over 95 percent of the political parties did not take part in the elections while only about 20 percent voters turned up to vote.

Ironically, while Manisha is supporting the king, her grandfather, the late Bishweshwor Prasad Koirala, was one of the foremost champions of the pro-democracy movements in Nepal that sought to end autocratic regimes and establish multi-party democracy. His younger brother, Girija Prasad Koirala, is one of the leaders of the ongoing movement against Gyanendra's coup.

However, both Manisha and her father, who was made a minister by the king last year, have been publicly criticising the anti-king movement.

While Manisha and her brother Siddharth have chosen to make a career in Mumbai, Prakash Koirala, like most of the royalist ministers in Gyanendra's cabinet, regard India as Nepal's prime enemy.

This week Prakash Koirala criticised New Delhi in a Nepali daily, Rajdhani, accusing the Indian government of abetting Maoist guerrillas and opposition parties to destabilise Nepal and enforce its control over the kingdom.